Exploring the use of the Delphi method in accounting information systems research

Recent focus on the diversity of research methodologies available to accounting information systems (AIS) scholars has led researchers to suggest the Delphi method has reached the limits of its usefulness. Using a review of the accounting and information systems literature, we suggest such a finding is premature for the AIS discipline. The Delphi method is especially useful in reducing ambiguity through the use of expert panels of both practitioners and experts and informing relevant and timely issues facing organizations. In essence, the Delphi method has potential to provide both rigor and relevance to AIS researchers. Our purpose is to review the prior literature on the use of the Delphi method and discuss potential areas of research within the AIS discipline where the method might add value. Based on this review, we develop a series of guidelines on how to properly develop, administer, and assess panel responses and then use an illustrative study example that explores IT risks in operations. We conclude with a discussion of the value of the Delphi method and provide insight into its limitations.     

Performing Under Pressure: Winning Customers Through Improvisation in Team Selling

The sales presentation is one of the most challenging and dynamic aspect of the sales process. Often-times, the presentation is composed of teams. The purpose of this study is to examine how improvisation manifests itself in the context of the sales team presentation. Utilizing the theoretical foundations of team dynamics and relationships, unplanned behavior, and emotional intelligence, a model of sales team improvisation is developed. A two-phase research design was employed via qualitative in-depth interviews from buyers and sellers followed by a quantitative survey of experienced sales team professionals. Our results find that improvisation impacts the relationship between emotional intelligence and team presentation performance outcomes. Although team selling is common in practice, a dearth of research exists in the sales literature. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on team dynamics and emotion in selling. Additionally, this study is one of the first to specifically investigate improvisation in the high pressure context of sales team presentations.     

Domestic Crop Booms,Livelihood Pathways and Nested Transitions: Charting the Implications of Bangladesh's Pangasius Boom

Rapidly transforming Asian food systems are oriented largely towards domestic markets, yet literature on Asian crop booms deals almost exclusively with commodities produced for export. With reference to pangasius aquaculture in Bangladesh, we argue that ‘domestic crop booms’ – agricultural booms driven by domestic demand – are contributing to rapid social and ecological transformations in Asia and across the globe. We adopt a comparative multi‐scalar approach, and develop the concept of ‘livelihood pathways’ as a means of understanding agrarian change associated with crop booms. The study reveals sharply divergent patterns of social change resulting from the pangasius boom, as experienced in two different village settings, despite underlying similarities in the processes of commodification evident in both. In addition to drawing attention to domestic crop booms and the diversity of transitions in which they result, the paper demonstrates the value of comparative multi‐scalar analytical approaches and the importance of livelihood pathways in processes of agrarian change.     

Some implications of anarchy for the distribution of property

A model of an anarchistic society is introduced and its implications for the distribution of income are considered. The economy is assumed to allocate one unit of an all-purpose completely divisible good to each individual in society. This initial distribution of income is changed through theft into a final distribution. The notion of equilibrium is introduced and the equilibrium distribution for a two-person example is displayed. Finally, the notion of orderly anarchy is discussed. An orderly anarchistic allocation of income is defined to be a distribution of income in which no effort is spent in stealing property from others. It is shown that every allocation in the core is an orderly anarchistic allocation and that the core is nonempty.     

Guidelines for marketing a new industrial product

This article presents an illustration of what evaluations and obstacles a new product can face in an industrial market. Guidelines are also suggested which will hopefully better prepare industrial marketers for more success in marketing new products.